Saw The Cure last night in Manchester. Fulfilled a long-time ambition to see them. Sound so good live - and could have happily sat there all night listening to them. What a superb frontman Robert Smith is.

Super Furry Animals doing Fuzzy Logic and Radiator. i don't listen to them all that much normally but started listening to those albums before the gig and they are pretty great. thought i preferred Fuzzy Logic on record but thought Radiator came across better live - maybe it was better rehearsed. loads of fun, lasted nearly 2 hours, i'm definitely more of a fan now.

As ever with The Cure these days, you are going to get value for money. Setlist.com says that they did 31 songs, which is not to be sniffed at. Good coverage of their back catalogue and even a new track (Step Into The Light) which sounded decent. When I booked tickets for this waaay back at the start of the year I sort of hoped that they might actually have new material out in time for it, but no joy sadly - made this all a bit of a party set, but the crowd seemed up for it and entertained. Very impressive lights/screens set up too - for some songs they did some kind of 3D shot from behind the band thing which made you feel like you were on stage looking out at the crowd.

From the look of the other nights, they did different setlists each night which must have been pleasing. I get the impression that Robert Smith is genuinely enjoying playing these type of shows these days and revisiting some of the older songs.

The Lemon Twigs at Nice N Sleazys. Absolutely fucking great fun, a whole lot of stuff going on, great harmonies and high kicks included. Been a good while since i enjoyed a gig as much.Great support from goat girl, reslly fucking good as well.

Saw Biffy Clyro supported by Brand New on Sunday night at Leeds Arena.

Went mainly for Brand New, who were incredible. My mate wasn't too sure about Jesse mixing up the vocals live but I love it, makes it feel like the band really give a shit when they don't stick to the script. And to put on a show like that as a support act instead of playing it safe for the Biffy audience was brave. They only got 8 songs in while apparently Biffy had 27 which was a bit unfair. Got a little bit of Tautou in the middle of an extended version of You Won't Know, lovely.

When Biffy came on the sound was so bad and so over-loud my ears were bleeding sat on the second tier of seating. I think they sorted it out after a couple of songs but the initial onslaught of noise felt more painful than standing next to the speaker would have. Surprising because Brand New's sound was alright. We left after Wave Upon Wave Upon Wave after looking at the setlist and seeing that it was the second of only two pre-2007 songs on there. Having seen them thrash about in sweaty boxes way back when it was a bit weird to see them standing on podiums with a light show but it's nice that they're making their money now.

Yeah exactly, there's three albums of stuff there. Wasn't expecting them to chuck in Toys Toys Toys or some of their more out-there stuff but there's plenty of accessible songs on the older albums that they could have gone for (Questions and Answers etc.)